Hummus

One of my favourite Middle East dip is hummus. It is a simple dip to make and best eaten with pita bread and sweet basil. There's a sweet story behind this dish. The very first time i tasted hummus is when one of my colleague introduced it in one of our potluck/cooking-sharing session in the school where i taught previously. Being a foodie like me.. we've grown quite close. It was later that year, i received a call from her...after confirming a few facts abt my family..soon we realized that i am her aunt! what a small world.. so..whenever i made this dip.. it surely reminds me of her.. :)

Ingredients:
1 can of chickpeas
1 tbsp tahini
2 cloves of garlic
juice of 1/2 lemon
sea salt
2 tbsp olive oil
black pepper
sweet basil
pita bread

 

Method:

1. In a food processor, blend garlic, chickpeas with a quarter of the chickpeas' juice and tahini.

2. Half way through put in lemon juice, sea salt and olive oil.

3. Blend the mixture till smooth.

4. Serve with pita bread and sweet basil and a dash of coarsely cracked black pepper.



Herb Rice Salad/ Nasi Ulam

When i think about Nasi Ulam.. it always reminds me of the days during my confinement.. My mom would always make Nasi Ulam by carefully selecting herbs which their medicinal properties are well known especially for blood circulation and flatulence prevention. Long ago..where ulam is abundance and easily accessible..making nasi ulam requires 44 kinds of herbs! Now..getting even 7 types of herbs would be a challenge. A few days ago, the sight of an old man squatting by the road side selling a few types of ulam made me suddenly crave for nasi ulam. Starting from 3 types of herbs- tumeric leaves, indian pennywort and wild betel leaves., I started hunting for more fragrance ones like cekur leaves/sand ginger. I had to go from market to market just to search for these herbs and to my 'agony' for a few handful of herbs- they cost me RM10!! - and i could only manage to collect only 9 types of herbs.. crazy eh..- the things that i'd do only to have a plate of nasi ulam.. ;)

Basically the ingredients are:

A. 4 cups of plain cooked white rice.

B. Herbs:

a few sprigs of polygonum leaves, lemuni leaves, wild betel leaves, young mengkudu leaves,

cekur leaves, tumeric leaves, selom kafir lime leaves & pennywort.

 

the 9 types of leaves is rolled up tighly (so that it is easier to slice them as thinly as possible), fried salted talang fish, 1tbsp black pepper, 1 big onion, 4 shallots, 4 garlic, 3 lemon grass, 1 1/2" young galangal, 1 1/2" young ginger, 1" young tumeric roots and 

a handful of cekur roots as well (not in the pict).

 

 

Method:

 

1. Chop finely all the young roots, onion, shallots, garlic and lemongrass.

 

2. Pound black pepper first then the fried salted fish.

 

3. Mix the chopped roots, garlic, onion, shallots and garlic well with the pounded ingredients.
Basically, this is called: sambal lada.

 

4. To cut all the herbs as thinly as possible conveniently and less messy,

arrange all the herbs and roll them tightly and secure the roll with a rubber band.

 

5. Mix the thinly sliced herbs with plain cooked rice first evenly.

then, add the 'sambal lada' to the rice and mix well.

 

~ Bon Appetite ~

 

 

 

Cooking with Ribs, Lamb Shank : Soup Stock

Today i would like to share a little secret of my cooking especially when cooking beef/lamb in making soup/stew. This little tip is suitable for soups that are thick / creamy in nature as the ingredients used will cause the soup to be murky not clear. First of all.. credit goes to one of my idolised chef - Chef Wan: the food ambassador of Malaysia. It was back in mid 90's i watched his cooking show where he shared his little secret of having delicious meat after simmering for hours. So- let's start.

Coat any meat of your choice with sea salt, pepper & corn flour.

The one that i'm using in this post is a quarter of lamb leg.

Note: by coating the meat with seasoning & flour,

simmering it for hours till tender will help to regain the sweetness of the meat.

 

Heat the pan with olive oil or corn oil and

pan fry / sear the meat till the coating covering the meat is golden.

Once done in all sides of the meat, put it aside.

 

On the same pan, pour in more oil (if needed) and with medium heat,

caramalise 1 big yellow onion & 1/2 Australian big onion.

This may take a while. Caramalizing the onions this way would

result into a sweeter & creamy taste to the soup- and i find that using

a combo of yellow onion and Australian big onion gives better taste.

 

Once caramalised, put in the onions into the pot with the meat.

 

Pour water enough to cover the meat, put in a few bay leaves,

1 cube of knorr beef stock. Let it simmer till the meat is half tender then the stock is ready.

Note: when the meat is half tender- pour in the main ingredients of any soup that you wish to make and let it simmer till the meat tender.

 

 

 

Penang Curry Mee

There are many versions of Curry Mee.. but the one i like most is Penang Curry Mee.. it is definately a comfort food during rainy days.

mmmm... definately slurp slurp all d way!!

There are a few sets of ingredients needed to make Penang Curry Mee:
The main ingredients:

1a. The 'rempah'/ spice paste: 
1tbsp coriander seeds, 1/4 tbsp black pepper, 3-4 shallots, 3 garlic, 1/2 big onion, 2 lemon grass, 1 1/2cm ginger, 1 cm tumeric root, thumbsize shrimp paste, 2 candlenuts and 2tbsp fried dried shrimp. Blend all the ingredients above till fine and add in 4 tbsp of dry chilli paste.

1b. Prawn stock:
Ingredient: Shell of 1kg of fresh prawn, peanut oil, 1 tsp sea salt & 1 liter of water.
Method: i. wash the prawn shell properly and toss.
ii. heat peanut oil in the wok in high heat and put in the shell and sea salt. Fry the shell till they are crispy and pour in water.
iii. simmer for 1 hour and once done, seive the stock.



1c. 1/2 cup of coconut milk. (.. try with half cup first and then add more to yr liking.)

 2. 3/4 cooked fried tiger prawns, 3/4 cooked cockles (de-shelled), tau fu pok, fish balls & fish cakes. ( a few more varieties of fish balls and yong tau fo could be added.. but then- i would like to enjoy d cockles more..)

3. The garnishes for this dish i minimised them to a minimum as to i would to focus more one my big cockles & tiger prawns:-
Garnishes: boiled egg, blanched bean sprout, spring onions, deseeded calamansi, red & green chillies and dry squid sambal.

to make dry squid sambal- you may need: 1/2 big red onion, 5 shallots, 4 tbsp dry chilli paste, 1/2 tbsp tamarind paste, 1 tbsp brown sugar & fish sauce. Use fish sauce sparingly as the dry squid is quite salty.

method: fry the onion & shallots till golden and pour in tamarind paste & chilli paste. Put in brown sugar and fish sauce. Once the paste is cooked (oil surfaces)- put in dry squid which has been presoaked and cut into small pieces. Pour in a bit of water and cook the dry squid till the sambal dries a bit. The taste should be sourish sweet and chilli hot.

4. Blanched yellow noodles and rice vermicelli.


Method:
1. Use the oil that previously used for frying dried shrimp and tiger prawns to fry the blended paste.

2. Cook the paste till fragrant and oil surfaces from the paste. Pour in 1/2 cup of santan and the prawn stock.

3. Let it simmer and put in the fish balls, fish cake. Once the fishballs & fishcakes are done, put in cockles, prawns and tau fu pok.

4. The liquidity of the curry depends on how you like it to be. I use a little coconut milk as using candlenuts is quite creamy already. :)

Serve with yellow noodles and blanched rice vermicelli, bean sprouts, boiled egg, spring onion, half deseeded calamansi and top up with dry squid sambal. Bon Appetite.. :)

As featured in Asian Food Channel : Fan Submission (November)
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Acetes Fritters

Acetes serrulatus.. or as Malaysians call them Udang Geragau... Whenever my sight caught this mini scrumptious shrimps - i would definately 'borong' them ..if possible all.. hehe.. Just luv the taste..what more when they are fresh from the boat itself! One of my favourite ways to enjoy these fresh acetes is to make them into fritters and serve them with cucumber, fried tofu and peanut gravy.

Ingredients:
1 cup of rice flour
1/4 cup of unbleached flour
1/2 cube of anchovies stock
1tsp tumeric powder
1tbsp meat curry powder
sea salt
pepper
oil for frying






Method:
1. Clean acetes and toss them.
2. In a bowl- mix the rice flour, flour, anchovies stock, curry & tumeric powder, salt & pepper & water - make it into a batter (the consistency should be like fried banana batter consistency).
3. Heat the oil in the wok.
4. Drain excess water from the acetes and drop into the batter.
5. Scoop the batter containing acetes and deep fry them in a medium heat.
6. Fry tofu and cut into cubes. Cut cucumber into cubes.
7. The dish is served hot with peanut gravy.

.. know what.. this will definately goes well with a cuppa steaming hot coffee... bon appetite.. ;)

Fresh Pesto Shrimp Conchiglie

.. Sweet basil.. the fragrance itself would never fail to make my mouth watery.. To celebrate such good herb.. i choose to make it into pesto. This simple pesto goes well in my Shrimp Conchiglie dish today.. :)

Making the Pesto basically requires:

1 packet of sweet basil, 150gm of macadamia nuts, 1/4 cup of olive oil, sea salt.

Method:
1. In a food processor, chop macadamia nuts till fine and put in sweet basil.
2. Pour in olive oil slowly into the inlet of the food processor.
3. Blend the paste till fine.

 

Note: Normally, making pesto paste includes garlic and parmesan cheese. However, i prefer to cook the garlic and add the parmesan later when cooking the pasta.

 

~ Cooking the Pasta ~

Ingredients:

 

1 box of rice conchiglie (any pasta to yr liking) cooked el dente, 3 garlic chopped finely, a few sprigs of sweet basil, a cup of shrimps & tiger prawns, sea salt, pepper & parmesan to taste.

 

Methods:

1. In a pan, heat up olive oil & stir fry garlic in a medium heat.

2. Cook till the garlic are soft (not brown) and put in prawns, salt & pesto.

3. Stir fry the paste for awhile and add in pasta.

Mix well and add in parmesan, pepper and sweet basil.

 

~ bon appetite ~

 



Clam Chowder

They say when the moon is full- it is the best time to purchase crabs & clams. It is the time when these scrumptious creatures are meaty. I was at the market a few days ago and i saw fresh clams..remembering that it was a full moon the previous night..with the sight of the peeping clams from their shells..seemed as though they are waving at me..calling me.. come.. its time.. ;)



 

To make clam chowder, you'll need:



1kg of clams, 1 chad potato, 1/2 carrot, 1/2 Australian white onion, 1/2 celery, 1/2 packet of cooking cream, olive oil, 100gm of salted butter, frshly crushed black pepper, a few sprigs of fresh italian parsley & thyme, 1 1/2 tbs of flour, clam juice & chicken stock & salt.

Note: 1 whole yellow onion can be used as substitude for Australian White onion.

 

Method:

1. Dice potato, carrot, onion in small cubes.

2. In a pot of boiling water, put in clams in a few minutes. Once the shells begin to open slightly- toss the clams and save one cup of the juice.

3. In a medium heat pan, pour in olive oil and melt half of the butter. Add the onions and cook until transculent.

4. Add the potato & carrot and saute them till they are tender.

5. Pour in the clam juice and chicken stock and let it simmer for a few minutes.

6. Let it cool for a while - pour everything into a blender. Blend it till it becomes smooth. Put aside.

7. In a small pot, melt the remaining butter and whisk in the flour. Cook over very low heat and stir constantly till the flour becomes slightly golden.

 

 

8. Whisk in the blended ingredients constantly. Simmer for a few minutes and pour in cooking cream and stir. Add in the clams and celery.

9. Heat gently for a few minutes and sprinkle in chopped parsley and thyme as well as black pepper.

10. Serve hot with oven toasted baguette with butter.

 

 

~ bon appetit ~